It’s hard to be successful in college (and life) when you don’t know what you need to know. Sounds like common sense, right? But is it?

College students need to know a lot to be successful. Everything from the application process forward can present challenges. Part of the knowledge is informational—how and when to do certain things, how to locate important deadlines, how to use different university systems. Part of the knowledge is less tangible. Time management skills, problems solving skills and communication skills are all very important, too. That’s why colleges have student orientations, academic support services, peer mentors and many other types of programming.

What the programs (and the colleges) cannot fully account for is what students think they need to know. In other words, colleges design programs based on anticipated needs. And, the programs probably do meet those needs. However, students may or may not take advantage of available services because the students do not know they need them!

Students are (usually) able to recognize when they need academic help, but what about other things? I’ll use myself as an example. As an undergraduate student, I did not know I needed to use career services. It wasn’t because I was unwilling to seek help or did not know such a thing existed. I simply did not think I needed it. I had a serious perception/reality gap. I perceived my job search skills were fine. I perceived career services as a place where jobs were posted, but not much more than that. I did not understand the nature of career development, so I did not know it was valuable.       

Students do not necessarily know what they need to know. As a result, they often skip or overlook things. I think colleges make a good faith effort to ensure students have access to important kinds of services, but it doesn’t matter much if students do not recognize the need in themselves. This is especially true of optional services like peer mentoring, health and wellness seminars, and optional orientation programs.       

I don’t have an answer for this; it’s my own curious observation this week.       

 

It’s hard to be successful in college (and life) when you don’t know what you need to know. Sounds like common sense, right? But is it?

College students need to know a lot to be successful. Everything from the application process forward can present challenges. Part of the knowledge is informational—how and when to do certain things, how to locate important deadlines, how to use different university systems. Part of the knowledge is less tangible. Time management skills, problems solving skills and communication skills are all very important, too. That’s why colleges have student orientations, academic support services, peer mentors, and many other types of programming.

What the programs (and the colleges) cannot fully account for is what students think they need to know. In other words, colleges design programs based on anticipated needs. And, the programs probably do meet those needs. However, students may or may not take advantage of available services because the students do not know they need them!

 

Students are (usually) able to recognize when they need academic help, but what about other things? I’ll use myself as an example. As an undergraduate student, I did not know I needed to use career services. It wasn’t because I was unwilling to seek help or did not know such a thing existed. I simply did not think I needed it. I had a serious perception/reality gap. I perceived my job search skills were fine. I perceived career services as a place where jobs were posted, but not much more than that. I did not understand the nature of career development, so I did not know it was valuable.       

 

Students do not necessarily know what they need to know. As a result, they often skip or overlook things. I think colleges make a good faith effort to ensure students have access to important kinds of services, but it doesn’t matter much if students do not recognize the need in themselves. This is especially true of optional services like peer mentoring, health and wellness seminars, and optional orientation programs.       

 

I don’t have an answer for this; it’s my own curious observation this week.